Pep Guardiola Man City Tactics 22/23 | NEW 3-2-4-1 Formation Recreated in Football Manager 2024

Football Manager 2023 Pep Guardiola’s Man City Tactics

The Attacking Man City 3-2-4-1 Tactic (FM23)

Valueable Information For Football Manager 2024:

• I would use WCB on defend duty rather than support. This will help the back line to defend and protect against counters better.
• I would also change the role of Rodri to a DLP-S or DM-D instead of using the Regista.

First up, is what I would call a classic 3-2-4-1 tactic. In this system, I’ve considered Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City tactics to use two attacking midfielders. In some ways, you could look at this system as an attacking tactic – great to use against weaker teams or when you are in need of goals.

The aim with this system is to overload the opposition on their own defensive third by having five forwards in close proximity to each other to make it harder for the opposition team to play out from the back.

With a 3-2-5 shape in possession it creates a wonderful foundation for attacking football where the attacking midfielders provide great support to the striker and difficulty for the opposition team to defend against all the attacking threats.

With two attacking midfielders it requires the opposition to use a double pivot to defend that area in order to avoid giving the Gündogan or Kevin de Bruyne role too much space to thread passes towards the striker.

Player roles of Pep’s Classic 3-2-4-1 Tactic

[FM23] The 3-2-2-3 Box Midfield

The 3-2-2-3 box midfield tactic behaves slightly similar to the classic 3-2-4-1 system. It operates as a 3-2-5 shape in final third but protects the middle better due to being more balanced. The 3-2-2-3 box midfield is essentially better against teams who operates with three or more players in midfield as the central midfielders defends deeper and doesn’t conceive as much space.

In many ways, it’s more defensive stable with more movements coming from deep rather than players “waiting for the ball”.

One of the weaknesses within the Classic 3-2-4-1 system is the potential to be overrun in the midfield with a larger gap between the defensive midfielders and the attacking midfielders.

This enables a basic 4-3-3 to have control in the center of the park if they play rather narrow. To combat this I’ve created an altnerative version; the 3-2-2-3 box midfield. This tactic uses most of the same roles as the Classic 3-2-4-1 tactic apart from two exceptions – the roles of Ilkay Gündogan and Kevin de Bruyne.

Rather than an Advanced Playmaker (Support) and Attacking Midfielder (Attack) I’ve gone for two Mezzala’s with different duties.

By using a Mezzala on either side I take into account the playmaking abilities of Ilkay Gündogan and Kevin de Bruyne as well as their preferance to play in the half space channel. It looks to empasize the rules of positional play with a player holding position in each of the channel with the double pivot defending the area between the center channel and the half space channel.

At the back, the two wide centre backs will do a similar job of protecting against counter-attacks by defending the space between the half space channel and the wide channel.

The two Mezzala’s will split zone 14 into two different areas of responsibilites.

Ilkay Gündogan: Mezzala – Support

On the left side we have the role of Ilkay Gündogan. A player who will occassionally drop deep to offer passing options when building up play from the back. He’ll drop back and help out in the defensive transition phase by tracking back or close down the opposing player quickly and easily.

Despite he’ll roam around the pitch looking for areas he can take advantage of – making him look like an advanced playmaker in AMCL position at times, he will link up and stay rather close connected to the Regista – making it harder for the opposition team to attack down the left flank.

When the team is building up play, he will occassionally make penetrating runs like Ilkay Gündogan in real life. His positioning and movements will help to create space for the left inverte winger to get one on one against his opposing marker.

At the same time, he does an important job out of possession by quickly closing down the opposing player with the ball if the team looses the ball high up the pitch and helps to win back the ball high up the pitch so the attack can restart.

PS! I’ve also consider the role of Ilkay Gündogan as a Central Midfielder-support or a roaming playmaker but enjoys the high pressing from the Mezzala and his tendency to move into channel.

Kevin de Bruyne: Mezzala – Attack

The heat map of Kevin de Bruyne reveals how often he seeks to the flanks to get more time and space to pick out a pass. So many assists have come from crosses into the box towards Erling Haalands head, or low crosses, cut backs or diagonal passes that finds the feet of Haaland who have moved towards the back post.

To remain control in the center as well as being that press-resistant playmaker who can also win back the ball high up the pitch, I felt the Mezzala would be the correct interpretation of Kevin de Bruyne.

With an attack duty, he will defend higher up the pitch as well as using his acceleration, flair and dribbling to beat his marker in one on one situations. He’s also able to make long shots from the edge of the penalty area and will form an attacking partnership with the forward which will make your team extremely dangerous in the final third – whether it be killer passes, through balls or lovely flick ons that is directed towards the inverted winger, the striker or the opposite Mezzala.

The attacking Mezzala will often come to more chances and take more shots and it’s not uncommon to see the player score more than 10 goals per season.

[FM23] Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City 4-3-3 Tactic

The 4-3-3 system has been a favorite of Pep Guardiola since the early days as manager of Barcelona. Pep Guardiola normally played as a single pivot in a 4-3-3 system under Johan Cruyff and has continued the Dutch tradition with the emphasize of positional play.

As we all know, the 4-3-3 system creates the ideal shape in possession to maintain control and play that passing game Pep Guardiola is so famous for, as it creates a vast number of passing triangles and rhombus shape ideal for retaining possession.

Before moving to the new 3-2-4-1 tactic, Pep Guardiola favoured to use a 4-3-3 system that turned into a 2-3-5 or 2-3-2-3 in possession. With this shape Pep Guardiola aimed to create quantitative overloads in central areas as well as having numerical superiority at the back to defend against counter-attacks.

Similar to Pep’s new 3-2-4-1 tactic, the role of Kevin de Bruyne was to pull out wide to get more space and time to pick out passes. By moving from the half space channel to the wide channel he got better and more dangerous passing angles which he could combine with the inverted winger or the forward as they moved between the channels.

Rather than a back three, the fullbacks would invert and form that 2-3-2-3 shape in the build-up – something that provides the best passing angles and opportunities to progress play into the final third.

Often it was the task of Joao Cancelo to invert – playing in that inverted fulback role we’ve seen Zinchencko blossoming in the 22/23 Arsenal side. On the other side I’ve selected the wingback role for Kyle Walker, but feel free to use two inverted wingbacks.

The positioning of Cancelo or Walker as inverted wingbacks, aimed at opening up passing lanes to the wingers to progress quicker. If the opposite wingers should man mark the inverted wingbacks, they were forced to tuck inside creating space for the centre-backs to get the ball. This shape creates the ultimate triangles to build inside to progress play as the ball can be played out – in – out.

At the same time, the positioning of the inverted wingbacks in possession free’s up the responsibilities of the two central midfielders. They can advance further forward in the build-up or drop between the lines to receive the ball.

In my interpretation of Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City 4-3-3 tactic, I’ve gone for a box to box midfieler who moves into channels and make those late surges into the penalty area like Ilkay Gündogan is so brilliant at.

However, it’s smart to make small teaks to your tactics in-game, for instance in the last 20 minutes of the match to try to overrun the opposition by also overloading the left flank with more runs from deep. Here you can consider the ‘Central Midfielder – Attack’ or CM-S if you don’t want to take as much risk.

In 2021-22, the center forward was occupied by Gabriel Jesus. With a slightly different striker than Haaland, Pep Guardiola instructed the forward to drop deeper and be more involved in the build-up helping to hold up the ball and make flick-ons to forward moving wingers and central midfielders.

While many would interpret the role as a False 9, I have decided to select the Complete Forward role on Support instead.

You could have selected a Deep-Lying Forward (Support) also, but the Complete Forward will roam around to find space and attract focus before attacking the space in behind either via quick short passes, one-two’s or carry the ball forward by creating chances for himself.

I like it for how it makes progressive runs between the oppsite fullback and centre back always being a constant threat whether he’s in possession or making movements off the ball.

With a ‘Complete Forward – Support’ you will have both a player who can score goals either inside the penalty box, or from longer ranges, or who can make those through balls and assists that sets up a team mate for a goalscoring opportunity.

Essentially, what role you select to use will depend on the type of striker you got. Whether you got a strong target-man type of striker who would be the ideal DLF as he’s able to hold up the ball, an attacking midfielder who stands out for his creativity, ball control and vision to use the False 9 role, or a mix between the two to use the Complete Forward role.

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